Senate OKs bill renaming QC roads after Miriam Defensor-Santiago

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Monday unanimously approved on final reading a bill renaming Agham Road and the BIR Road in Quezon City after the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

According to the House Bill 7413, which garnered 22 affirmative votes with no negative votes nor abstentions, the roadways of Agham Road and BIR Road will be renamed to “Senator Miriam P. Defensor-Santiago Avenue."

The bill passed final reading at the House of Representatives in March with no negative votes nor abstentions.

During the last stretch of her tenure as a senator, Defensor-Santiago filed an indefinite leave from the Senate due to her health. She was hospitalized due to lung complications before passing away in September 2016 at the age of 71.

During the Monday plenary hearing, Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" F. Zubiri, Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros, Sens. Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, and Sonny Angara offered tributes and relayed memorable personal experiences with "one of the pillars of the Philippine Senate."

"She has a feisty appearance on TV and she was a very feisty woman, a firebrand of leadership and performance, but in the halls of Congress... She was like a mother to all of us," Zubiri said.

"This honor is a small token of what she should be honored throughout the Philippines. She should be given all the accolades and honors. She was an excellent legislator and an excellent senator," he added.

Defensor-Santiago served in all three branches of the Philippine government - as a judge in the Regional Trial Court, immigration commissioner and agrarian reform secretary in the executive branch, and as senator for three terms in the legislative branch.

Defensor-Santiago was also the first Asian judge elected to the International Criminal Court.  

The veteran lawmaker was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer in 2014 but declared she had beaten her illness a year after. 

She then pursued her presidential bid in 2016 despite doubts cast on her health, running alongside then-Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., her vice presidential candidate.

During the filing of her candidacy in 2016, Defensor-Santiago defended her choice for running mate, saying that the Marcos family does not owe Filipinos an apology for the human rights violations that took place during the term of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., which the veteran lawmaker said was a result of policy decisions by Marcos and his advisers, according to an ABS-CBN report. 

— with reports by Rosette Adel